All posts filed under: z528

Woman eating a hamburger

Spiritual Warfare: The Purpose of Fasting

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Though there are different types of fasts, the most common definition is abstaining from eating food. This can be for one meal, a full day, or perhaps even three days. But what does it accomplish? What is the reason for our fasting? I am convinced that one major reason we should fast is for spiritual warfare. When the Holy Spirit led Jesus into a confrontation with Satan in the wilderness, Jesus prepared Himself by fasting for 40 days (Matthew 4:1-2). This was not a battle with a lower-level demon or even a fallen angel, it was with the god or ruler of this world. It was a spiritual battle with the master of lies and deception, which Jesus defeated, and not coincidentally Jesus fasted before this spiritual battle of the ages. I believe fasting is one of the unmentioned ‘weapons of our warfare’ which Paul says is ‘divinely powerful’ to destroy ‘fortresses’ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Paul then goes on to describe these fortresses as being in our minds, thoughts, arguments, and beliefs that oppose the …

Satan's temptation of Christ by Ary Scheffer

Spiritual warfare: Amazon Prime’s ‘Hazbin Hotel’ portrays evil as good

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“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20 ESV) There is no doubt in my mind, that the Holy Spirit is starting to move in America, and it shouldn’t surprise us if the satanic realm will attempt to strike back. But how it’s happening is particularly deceptive. Christian Learning recently wrote about the trailer for Amazon Prime’s new animated cartoon series that will portray Satan as a hero and God as evil. The series, entitled, “Hazbin Hotel” will star Satan, portrayed as one of the angels of Heaven. He will marry Lilith, which Jewish tradition states is a satanic sexual spirit, and some believe was actually the first wife of Adam. The satanic duo will also have a son who starts a rehab center at the hotel. It’s billed as “Heaven and Hell like you have never seen it before.” “The cartoon portrays Lucifer as an unsung hero, fostering sympathy towards him,” writes …

Lee Grady shares seven ways we can encourage a move of the Holy Spirit in our churches

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In an article for Charisma News, Lee Grady shares seven ways how we can encourage a greater move of the Holy Spirit in our churches. He starts out by sharing how he recently spoke at an Anglican Church men’s conference in Uganda where he quips, ‘these were not your grandmother’s Anglicans’ because they were singing, dancing in the aisles, speaking in tongues, and prophesying. If we want the Holy Spirit to move in our Western churches, here are the seven things that we should be doing: I am excited by this article because as the days grow darker, we will need more of the Holy Spirit in our lives: How to Encourage a Move of the Holy Spirit in a Dry Church

Britain: Jewish father states ‘To be Jewish in the UK is very hard. And it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse and worse’

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In pre-war Nazi Germany, officials would scribble notes on the official documents of Jewish people. This eventually escalated to the slaughter of six million Jews in concentration camps. Now a similar thing is starting to take place in London, England, causing a Jewish father to exclaim, “To be Jewish in the UK is very hard. And it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse and worse.” According to an article in the Daily Mail, Israel and his wife, both Jewish, had applied for a passport for their recently born daughter Ronnie. However, when the government returned the child’s birth certificate not only had it been torn, but someone had taken a pen and deliberately scribbled out the birthplace of the child’s father, which in this case was Israel. Because of the damage, the document is no longer valid. The baby’s father, who is also named Israel, stated ‘It is completely warped and it hurts my heart that my daughter is not even six-months-old and she has already been discriminated on in the worst way.’ ‘I think …

Male robber with baseball bat waiting for victim.

Highway Robbery!

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By Rick Renner

When you live and preach the Gospel in volatile regions of the world, you deal with issues that believers in more civilized nations never have to think about. Some of these challenges simply go with the territory of working on the front lines of the Gospel, and there is nothing that can be done to change it.

Pastor Jack Hibbs gets a first-hand lesson in Jesus’ warning, ‘Beware when all men speak well of you’

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In Luke 6:26, Jesus gave His disciples a stark warning, “Woe to you when all the people speak well of you.” The verse tells us if we are preaching God’s Kingdom, then we will have enemies. In fact, the verse suggests that we should want enemies, because it means we are preaching the truth. In fact, it should concern us when we don’t have critics and everyone likes you, because it means your message is so watered down it threatens no one. Todd Starnes reports that Pastor Jack Hibbs, who pastors Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California stirred up some enemies after he was invited to give the prayer invocation at US House by speaker Mike Johnson. “Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), a self-described secular humanist who denies the existence of God, became enraged after Hibbs was invited by Speaker Mike Johnson to deliver an invocation before the House,” writes Starnes. “Huffman, along with more than two dozen Democrats, wrote a letter that libeled and slandered the beloved evangelical Christian leader – calling him ‘an ill-qualified hate preacher’ …